Christians in the Twenty-First Century: Churchgoers or Disciples of Jesus?

Church planting is far more difficult in 2021 than it was in the mid-1980s—35 odd years ago. People no longer attend church like they did in the mid-1980s. In the mid-1980s a new church planted in a rapidly growing part of a state could expect to attract its share of newcomers to the area. It could grow from transfer growth alone. Not today.

We are now living in the age of the nones and the dones. The nones are individuals who, when they are surveyed, indicate that they have no religious affiliation. They may believe in God and Jesus but they have no use for organized religion. The dones are individuals who for a variety of reasons have burned out on church. They still believe in God and Jesus. They are just done with church and church members. The growth of this segment of the population is not good news for church planters or existing churches.

The COVID-19 pandemic of the last 12 months has accelerated the decline in church attendance.

A number of churches made the news for their defiance of public health measures requiring face masks, social distancing, and outdoor worship, and limiting the size of gatherings. Some churches took their local government to court and won their cases. Their success was hailed as a victory for religious freedom and was feted in white evangelical circles. They, however, lost in the court of public opinion and damaged further the sliding public image of Christianity and Christians in the United States. They made the task of church planters more difficult.

The COVID-19 pandemic is also impacting churches in other ways which will affect church planting. A segment of the churchgoing population, primarily white evangelicals, has been dismissive of the seriousness of the pandemic and its threat to the larger population. They have played an active role in perpetuating disinformation and misinformation about the virus. They have also been active in spreading conspiracy theories. Pastors have urged people to throw away their face masks from the pulpit and on social media. They have also encouraged people to ignore the guidance and recommendations of the CDC and the state and local health authorities.

This segment of the churchgoing population has taken a leading role in refusing to undergo vaccination against the virus and propagating all kinds of erroneous beliefs about the vaccines and their side-affects. They have been doing more than their share of scaremongering. They have created a public image that Christians do not care about the health, safety, and well-being of their communities and the larger population.

While some Christians may attribute a general hostility toward Christianity in the US population for the stereotypes of Christians that are common in the nation’s unchurched population, they themselves have contributed to these stereotypes through their own attitudes and behaviors. They have to a large extent ignored what Jesus taught about how his disciples should relate to those who were not yet his disciples. Rather they have focused upon what he said about expecting opposition. They have adopted a tribalistic view of the world—an “us vs. them” view. The sad truth, however, is that what they see as opposition is largely what they caused themselves. Rather than being “wise as serpents and as gentle as doves,” they have not shown the winsomeness that should characterize the witness of a Christian.

One of the lessons that we can learn from the COVID-pandemic is that Christians need to unlearn being churchgoers and to learn being disciples of Jesus. We need to live the Great Commission as well as the Great Commandment. A Christianity Today article that caught my attention told the story of how the pandemic sharpened the focus of a Nazarene church on loving their neighbor. Loving our neighbor, however, involves more than meeting their physical needs. We must also meet their spiritual needs. Meeting their physical needs may be the easiest task. Meeting their spiritual needs may be more challenging. We can fill people’s bellies, but we cannot fill their souls. Only God can fill them with himself.

God uses us as a means of his grace. God uses our words and our actions to point to Jesus. They show that Jesus can make a difference in someone’s life. They show that following Jesus is worthwhile. While we cannot open someone’s heart and mind to God’s grace, God himself can use our words and actions to open them. We cannot love people into God’s kingdom. God, however, can use our loving witness to draw them into the kingdom.

While gathering with our fellow Christians to sing God’s praises, to hear God’s Word, to pray for the church and the world, and to share the Lord’s Supper are a part of being a disciple of Jesus, they are not the whole of it. We need to disabuse ourselves of the idea that churchgoing and discipleship are one and the same. They are not. We also need to disabuse ourselves of the idea that singing God’s praise at our gatherings is the entirety of worship. It is not. Discipleship and worship are inseparably linked. When we devote our lives to obeying Jesus’ teaching and following his example, we recognize and honor God. We show our love for the Father by keeping the words of the Son, the words that the Son heard from the Father, the words the Father gave him. We show our love for God by obeying God’s command to listen to Jesus and to act on what he taught.

Singing God’s praises and then paying no heed to what Jesus said or to the example he set is not showing our love of God. We are doing what the Pharisees and scribes did. They chose to do what they believed would make them look righteous in the eyes of their fellow Jews and would win the praise and plaudits of their fellow Jews but ignored what mattered most to God, that they should be merciful as God himself was merciful.

We do not love God with every atom of our being if we do not love our neighbor as ourselves. Those to who we are neighbor are not just the members of our tribe. They are people who do not look like us. They do not speak like us. They do vote like us. They not value what we value. They may be people whom we secretly despise or openly hate. They are, however, our neighbors.

How we act toward these people is not only a test of our discipleship but also is a measure of our love of God, a measure of our love of the Son whom God gave out of his love for his creation. We cannot say that we love God and then reject those for whose salvation the Son humbled himself and became a human being like ourselves.

I am not talking about conservative Christianity. I am not talking about progressive Christianity. I am not talking about the “Anglican Way.” I am talking about God’s way—Jesus’ way. I am talking about what Matthew 28: 19-20 means when it says, “teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” We do not teach them by haranguing them from a pulpit or lecturing them in a classroom. We teach them by doing what Jesus commanded and modeling what it is to be a true disciple of our Lord. I am not saying that there should not be any verbal instruction but what will have the most lasting effect will be seeing others walking as disciples of Jesus and walking as Jesus’ disciples themselves.